1. Related Applications
There are no applications related hereto heretofore filed in this or any foreign country.
2. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to work supported fixtures for stacking horizontally orientated doors in spaced vertical array, and more particularly to such a fixture having two spaced handles for manipulation and self-aligning mortise and tenon joining elements.
3. Background and Description of Prior Art
In the construction industry generally and in new construction particularly it often is necessary to finish exposed surfaces of a substantial number of unhung doors by painting, varnishing or otherwise. Such finishing process generally heretofore has been carried out by resting single doors on some horizontal supportative surface such as two sawhorses or on an underlying support such as a floor adjacent a wall on which the upper portion of a door is rested in angulated fashion. Normally in this process, only one side of a door is finished at one time because of the difficulty of moving the door after finishing material is applied on one side without damaging the unmatured finish on that side. This type of door finishing not only requires the expenditures of substantial time and labor, but also exposes a recently finished door before drying or maturity of the finishing material to the hazards of a construction environment, such as dust, air borne debris and the like, and generally occupies substantial areas of a construction project for substantial periods of time during which the door finishing process is carried out. The instant invention seeks to alleviate this problem by providing fixtures which may be attached in pairs on both the top and bottom edges of doors to allow handling and vertical stacking of a plurality of horizontally orientated doors not only for finishing, but also for other work, storage, or otherwise.
It has heretofore become known, especially in the packaging arts, to support a plurality of relatively thin, substantially planar, door-like items in spaced parallel array, especially for shipping or storage, and various support devices have heretofore become known for this purpose. Such devices generally have been developed to support particular items and by reason of this have been specifically related and limited in use to the particular items which they support, both in their structural design and function. Packaging or storage supports of this type are not concerned with supporting items that have unfinished surfaces coated with wet paint or similar finishing material and because of this such supports commonly have extended over one or both faces of the arrayed material. Over two or more perpendicularly related peripheral surfaces, or both. Corner type supports that fit over two spaced parallel surfaces and two perpendicular edges connecting those surfaces and U-shaped supports that fit over two perpendicular surfaces and one edge connecting the surfaces are typical of this type of packaging support. Commonly such packing supports are not interconnected to the material which they are associated and they usually have no means for aligning a stacked array of protected objects in spaced adjacency as this function is accomplished by other packaging material. The instant fixture differs from this type of packaging support by providing a fixture that is mechanically fastened to the top and bottom edges of a door to be stacked, provides two spaced handles to aid manipulation and spaced tenons on one side edge and mortises on the opposite side edge to cooperate with similar elements of adjacent fixtures to not only maintain a spaced relationship between a plurality of stacked doors but also to positionally maintain the stacked array.
Another type of support for a spacedly adjacent array of relatively thin flat objects has required some particular configuration or configurational modification in the arrayed objects themselves to fasten to those objects. Commonly such structures have served a secondary purpose of interconnecting various parts of the objects to be arrayed, such as a corner support that fits in slots defined in two perpendicular sides of an object or a multiple spline-like structure that fits in appropriately configured tenons defined in adjacent surfaces of the objects to be arrayed. In contradistinction, the instant fixture requires no modification or change in the configuration of doors to be stacked for its use and it does not require any fastening structures that disfigure any of the observable areas of doors which it services as it is interconnected only to the top and bottom edges of doors which are not normally visually observable when the doors are hung in a supporting casement.
My door stacking fixture provides other secondary advantages that are related to its particular use in the stacking of doors: during finishing operations. The fixture allows doors to be stacked in a substantially horizontal orientation on a horizontal supporting surface such as a floor so that the upper surface of the uppermost door in a stack may be accessed and worked upon while supported in the stack. This allows finishing of both faces or major areal surfaces of the door and its side edges at the same time since a downwardly facing finished surface is maintained at a spaced distance from the immediately lower door supported by my fixture. If doors are finished with material applied by spraying, a door may be finished at a distance from the array in which it is to be stacked and then subsequently stacked in the array after finishing to avoid over-spray on doors already in the array. Normally the bottom and top edges of doors are not finished, but if this be desired, the fixture may be removed after finishing and curing of the finish on the door surfaces and the top and bottom surfaces then finished while the door is otherwise supported then by my fixtures, such as in a stack with faces in adjacency. Various door hardware such as hinges, knobs, and latches may be easily and conveniently initially installed or later replaced on doors, and especially the uppermost door, while supported in a stacked array.
Another secondary benefit provided by the instant fixture is that stacked doors are maintained in a compact spaced array with channels between the adjacent surfaces of each door and the surface supporting the lowermost door to allow circulation of air to aid in the drying or curing process of finishing materials that are applied to the door faces. A stacked array of doors with relatively narrow channels between adjacent door surfaces also tends to keep more aerial borne debris, such as dust or other similar particulate matter common in construction sites, from accessing the finished surfaces of the doors, at least to a substantially greater extent than if the doors were individually supported on horizontal supports or in an angulated fashion between a floor and vertical structural wall. The compact vertically stacked array of doors also provides a volume which may be easily covered with a tarp or sheet of other protective material that may be supported on the outer surfaces of my fixtures to maintain it out of contact with the door surfaces.
My invention resides not in any one of these features individually, but rather in the synergistic combination of all of the structures of my fixture that combine to give rise to the functions that necessarily flow therefrom.